The Ultimate Secret: Kim + West's Stunning Surprise Forest Wedding

So imagine this, you receive a wedding invite - but your invite doesn't have the venue location. This is exactly what happened for Kim and West's 50 guests. Keeping their amazing forest location a secret until the morning of the wedding Kim and West treated their guests to the ultimate outdoor wedding, surrounded by towering pine trees, epic mountain landscapes and the Arizona desert. Mike Olbinski Photography captured the excitement and amazing surroundings. Enjoy...

Kim first moved to Arizona as a university student and stayed after she fell in love with the city and surrounding Sonoran desert. Kim then set herself a challenge, she explains..."A year later I joined eHarmony and set the ambitious goal of going on 20 first dates. West was number 11 and though my friends begged me to make it all the way to 20 (and write a book about the adventure) I knew it was time to stop - here was someone special!"

Kim quickly stopped her online search for love and began falling for Arizona native West. Kim details..."West took me to Flagstaff in his '89 Chevrolet Blazer shortly after we started dating in 2012. It was the kind of cold December weekend that's perfect for eating, drinking, and snuggling. It was my first trip to Flagstaff and his chance to show off the mountain town he's loved since he was a kid. We watched trains roll through town, hiked in the forest, ate great food, and froze watching the funny, small-town Christmas Light Parade move through the streets of downtown. It was a wonderful weekend. One we'd repeat many times over the next two years."

Kim continues..."So it was no surprise when we found ourselves back in Flagstaff on New Year's Eve 2014. This time it wasn't just cold, it was a snowy winter wonderland. Another blissful evening was spent eating, laughing, and counting the seconds to the famous Pine Cone Drop at midnight. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped to watch the Amtrak train and before I knew it West had a ring in his hand, tears in his eyes, and a smile on his face. He asked me to marry him right there in front of the train station. Nothing could have been more perfect."

On their wedding day Kim and West returned to the same train station for some sweet wedding portraits, before joining guests for their secret forest wedding among the pines at A-1 Mountain, Flagstaff, Arizona.

In the run up to the wedding the exact spot for the wedding changed multiple times. Kim tells us..."We chose a date at the end of September when the weather would (hopefully) cooperate and everything came together from there. We actually changed the exact location a couple of times, which was super easy to do since all we needed was a place to set up camp and no one but us knew the location. The final spot was perfect with a picturesque view of the Peaks, just like we wanted."

On the morning all 50 wedding guests were picked up in a shuttle bus and driven 2 miles down a dirt road to the celebrations. What an exciting way to begin the day!

Once everyone was together they enjoyed food, drinks and dancing in the autumn sun, and even stargazing at night. Kim describes..."We had an astronomer from Lowell Observatory come at sunset with a telescope so guests could look at the stars and the (almost) blood-red moon (which was a few nights later)." The following day Kim, West and their gueststook a trip to the Grand Canyon and goodbye brunch to round off this one-of-a-kind wedding weekend.

Huge congratulations to you both and thanks so much for sharing your amazing wedding day with us all. A big thank you also goes to Mike Olbinski Photography for sharing his work with us. To see more from Mike Olbinski Photography visit www.mikeolbinski.com